


grant me one more day

by grayintogreen



Category: Dollhouse
Genre: 2x10 coda, Gen, and topher and boyd just being friends isn't painful or anything, irony is fun for the whole family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-28 00:09:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20769245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grayintogreen/pseuds/grayintogreen
Summary: "Everything's too normal and maybe that's a sign in itself."A coda set between 2x10 and everything going to hell.





	grant me one more day

Romeo's latest engagement was some blues man from New Orleans meant to woo some... Woman or another in what should be known by now as a typical seduction scenario and something about the humdrum... _normalness_ of the process of engagements and treatments made Topher feel eerily ill at ease. When facing the oncoming storm head-on, things should feel different, but ever since their collective Come to Jesus in De Witt's office after the Attic incident, nothing had really changed, other than a palpable air of tension that wasn't there anymore... And Priya and Tony weren't exactly Sierra and Victor anymore and Echo was... Well, Echo was, as always, Echo. That didn't change, even if it was the only thing that didn't.

In the ensuing shuffle of the treatment, Romeo's harmonica was left abandoned on a table and Topher, fidgeting for something to do with his hands now that the distraction of work had passed, picked it up. He turned it over in his hands before pressing it to his mouth to blow one note on it... One very bad note.

"That's not healthy."

Topher made a startled noise, turned to find Boyd lurking in the doorway, and waved the harmonica at him. "Geez, Boyd. You're... Picking up bad habits from Echo, aren't you?" He stared at the harmonica for a moment, as if only just now grasping Boyd's words. "And I think if the Actives were carrying any nasty diseases, I'd be aware of it- Dr. Saunders or no Dr. Saunders." It was still funny how he could throw her name around with so much casualness like it didn't physically hurt when he kept forcing himself to realize she was gone.

Boyd shrugged and stepped further inside. "I meant that if Holley hears you playing that, he's going to put you through a wall. He had to put up with it in the van all the way back to the house."

Topher's only response was a small bark of a nervous laugh. "That's... So normal. Why is it so normal around here? Why are we even still pretending we're not operating like some... Sneaky, clandestine operation hellbent on killing dragons?"

"Because the dragon can't know what De Witt's planning until she's ready to kill it."

For a moment, it looked like Topher was trying to find some counter to that, but nothing came to him. "...Well played, manfriend." That said, he sank down onto the edge of the imprint chair in silence, and studied the harmonica like it might hold some secrets to how all of this was going to play out. Of course, it didn't hold secrets to much of anything. It was just an object- some symbol of something that wasn't real, kinda like everything Topher's entire world consisted of here lately. The normalcy of everything just made the harsh reality that it was all fake and that everything was going to fall apart sooner rather than later a harsh, painful reality.

That alone was enough to get him talking again. "Boyd?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you... Ever get the feeling like... maybe we're running out of time?"

Boyd didn't respond for a long enough period of time for it to be uncomfortable. "For a long time now."


End file.
